Regional or main campus - where do you fit in?

Students weigh cost of college, quality of education in choice

Feb. 21, 2014

Many high school students, such as Colonel Crawford senior Nicole Jones, are deciding where to further their education. Besides deciding which school to choose, kids are faced with the decision of going to a school's main campus or attending one of its branch campuses. / Daniel Melograna/CentralOhio.com photo illustratio

MANSFIELD — Making the decision to spend thousands of dollars to continue their education on a hunch that they know what they want to do with their lives is hard for teens.

Most know they want to further their education at a good university, live on campus and immerse themselves in the college culture — but the price to pay for such a lifestyle can be costly.

It has them scrambling to find other ways to get the degree they want without breaking the bank or sending them into a debt that will take decades to pay back.

For students who live close to a major university’s regional campus, the question often becomes whether to save money by living at home and attending a branch campus or to pursue the main campus to access its opportunities.

Jeff Robinson, communications director for the Ohio Board of Regents, said it doesn’t matter which students choose. They all have the same goal in mind: “to get degrees in students’ hands for less time and less money.”

“We’re Ohio State too, and our education is every bit as good,” said Christina Drain, advancement manager at Ohio State University’s Mansfield campus. “When (students) leave here, they get an OSU diploma. It doesn’t say OSU-Mansfield.”

For fall semester this year, 175 students from Richland County opted to attend OSU-M — more than any other county, according to the campus’ student enrollment statistics report. Those students came from Lexington High School, 29; Ontario High School, 27; Madison Comprehensive High School, 23; Mansfield Senior High School, 19; and Shelby High School, 15, among others.

Nick Stevens might not have been a new student this year — he’s a fifth-year senior who will graduate in May with a major in history, with minors in psychology and professional writing — but when it was his turn to choose, he chose OSU-M too.

The 2009 Mansfield Senior High graduate said he preferred to pursue a degree close to home, where he could remain active in his home community. He serves as assistant coach for his alma mater’s wrestling team.

“I think some people get in it in their minds that they want to go to a big campus and have fun, but I think that, at a smaller campus, you can find what you really want to do,” Stevens said. “I like it here; it’s home.”

But there are a number of reasons students choose the local branch, regardless of whether they’re from the area.

In his experience, Robinson said two main factors go into picking a college: its reputation in the desired field of study and cost.

Because beginning coursework — called “general education requirements” at most schools — is about the same for any major, students often decide to save money by taking those courses at a regional campus, where tuition is low, and then transition to the larger campus for their meatier classes.

Commuting to a regional branch also helps many students cut costs by allowing them to live at home.

Roughly 10,000 students choose to attend one of Ohio University’s five regional campuses each year, said Craig Cornell, vice provost for enrollment management at Ohio University. Only about 370 of them go on to attend the Athens campus, he said.

That’s because a full-time, in-state student attending a regional campus will pay between $2,356 and $2,454 in tuition and fees per semester, depending on which campus they choose. There’s no housing or dining at those campuses, so costs remain low, he said.

At the Athens campus, students pay $5,190 per semester in tuition and then tack on room and board costs, he said. Those students have to help pay for the additional services, such as a library, scenic grounds, a larger number of facilities, athletic events, support services and dining, he explained.

The regional campuses “are built more around providing access to students who wouldn’t normally have it or are place-bound,” Cornell said.

The same concept follows at OSU-Mansfield.

At the Columbus campus, tuition is about $10,000 a year, Drain said; add on another $10,000 for room and board. But the Mansfield campus’ costs are nearly a third of that, she said.

“They think they can’t afford it, but they can,” Drain said. “We have a ton of scholarships we give out.”

Unlike OU, there aren’t as many degree options at OSU-M, forcing many students to make the transition to the main campus in their last two years. The campus offers eight bachelor’s degrees: business, criminology, education, English, history, psychology, social work or sociology.

By 2015, they hope to offer another five degrees, Drain said.

That’s the path second-year junior Sam Ulrich hopes to take. She will transition to the Columbus campus next year, where she’ll major in public affairs, with minors in political science and professional writing. Ultimately, she plans to attend law school.

The Louisville native said she was deferred from the main campus the first time she applied, but by maintaining a 2.0 GPA at a regional campus, she automatically qualifies for the transfer.

Like Ulrich, about

250 students make the transition each fall, Drain said.

“Being in a smaller community allowed me to get my feet wet,” Ulrich said. “Every college has something to offer; that’s why they’re so successful. It’s just a matter of which one